Stuttering with 1.33 [67967]

[syscrh]

Hi everyone!

I've got problems with heavy and constant stuttering while running ETS 1.33.0.53s. Lowering the graphic settings under 1.33 doesn't change anything/doesn't decrease stuttering (it even stutters the same running with minimal settings).
ETS 1.32 runs perfectly smooth with exactly the same settings.

Looking at the CPU and GPU usage I noticed that both don't get used to their full potential* with 1.33 (unlike with 1.32), so this could be a potential cause for the stutters?
*Actually the usage of the GPU seems to be neglectible in comparison to 1.32. Comparing the GPU temperatures after 5 minutes of driving with exactly the same settings: 1.32: 75 - 80 °C, 1.33: 55 °C; idle without ETS open: ~42 °C

Tested with a brand new profile without any mods whatsoever (moved everything from 1.32 into its own subdirectory and started ETS afterwards). This is also when this game.log.txt was created:
game.log.txt

Software: Debian 10 Buster with KDE Plasma 5
Hardware: ThinkPad X201 Tablet with Intel Core i7-640LM + AMD RX 560 via ExpressCard and 8 GB RAM

Hopefully you can reproduce/find the culprit for these newly introduced issues! Do you need any more information from me?

[Madkine]

2 things:

1) You only have 273M of RAM free (out of 8GB) when you start the game. Try closing some other programs to increase the amount of RAM available.
2) Your virtual memory pool is set to an improbably high number (much larger than your hard-drive could be) this may also be causing you issues.

*Removed useless advice

[SimulatorSam]

I dont think that DX will help if he is playing on Linux

EDIT:

Reported with ticket no 67967

[Madkine]

Doh, obviously I missed that.

[syscrh]

Reported with ticket no 67967

Thanks for forwarding it!

Comparison game.log.txt from ETS 1.32.3.14s
I did exactly the same things as with 1.33: Started with a blank directory, created a new profile (with the Scania S) with headquarters in Palermo, saved the game after it finished loading, adjusted the graphic settings to match my main 1.32 setup (basically FHD resolution, Ultra + 400 % scaling) and switched the menu music off. Afterwards I drove a bit through Palermo.
Free RAM (reported by the OS): ~4.2 GB
Consumed by ETS: ~1.6 - 1.7 GB

1) You only have 273M of RAM free (out of 8GB) when you start the game. Try closing some other programs to increase the amount of RAM available.

Now that you say it, I noticed this too in the game.log.txt ... That's actually quite strange, since the operating system reports a much different RAM usage while ETS 1.33 is running (over 4.5 GB of free RAM). So could it be that ETS reads the amount of free RAM incorrectly and thus does not allocate RAM properly? (so the stutters would come from loading assets from disk?!)

But testing this further with the following lines in game.log.txt (4 GB in-use before starting the game)

Code: Select all

00:00:00.000 : [mem] physical total: 7776M
00:00:00.000 : [mem] physical avail: 183M
00:00:00.000 : [mem] virtual total: 17592186044415M
00:00:00.000 : [mem] virtual avail: 17592186044415M
00:00:00.000 : [mem] Trying to allocate memory pool (819200K)
00:00:00.000 : [mem] Allocated 5 temporary loading buffer(s)

I couldn't confirm that ETS does not allocate enough RAM, as my system reported ETS 1.33 is consuming 1.5 GB RAM while driving (with the default low-quality settings) ...

2) Your virtual memory pool is set to an improbably high number (much larger than your hard-drive could be) this may also be causing you issues.

Is this the amount of virtual memory that got allocated by the operating system for the game or is this supposed to read the amount of swap available or what is this variable supposed to read? My swapfile has a size of 8 GB, if that's of any interest.

[Madkine]

It shows the virtual memory as 17,592,186 TB which is odd.

But yes it looks like there is some sort of issue with reading/allocating memory.

[Reinhard]

Virtual memory display in the log is always odd.

This is mine:

Code: Select all

00:00:00.001 : [mem] physical total: 8080M
00:00:00.001 : [mem] physical avail: 3675M
00:00:00.001 : [mem] virtual total: 134217727M
00:00:00.001 : [mem] virtual avail: 134213033M

134217727 Megabyte total? That's 131071 Gigabyte. Or a whopping 127 Terrabyte. Where should that amount of memory come from? For sure not from my drives.

[syscrh]

New observations with ETS 1.33.0.59s Experimental Beta: The stuttering comes from incredible low FPS (should have checked the minicon much earlier ...).

[ external image ]
game.log.txt

[Linux_Nutzer]

Hello dear friends.

I'm new here, but I've been successfully playing ETS2 under Linux for a long time. To your FPS problem! I don't know if this start command still works under Steam... I have entered two start commands in the Steam start options:

strangle FPS=30 %command% -mm_pool_size 4400

I have 16 GB RAM, therefore I have such a high value, and I have installed an AMD R9 380X with the free drivers in the computer. I don't have this problem with the FPS myself, maybe because I have a FPS limiter running. In this case I have limited the picture to 30 FPS, which is absolutely sufficient for me! I usually don't have any FPS break-ins, only when I drive past ProMods for example into certain big and detailed cities then the FPS drops a bit below 30 FPS, or when I have quite a lot of traffic on the map...

Ok, these two steam start options helped me to minimize some problems a bit. The startup command -mm_pool_size 4400 seems to give more RAM allocation, which is quite noticeable after a while, especially since ETS2 occupies over 5 GB of RAM after a while. I also discovered this start command by chance from the SCS forum, and tried it out right away. So I'm not a professional, but I think the start command seems to work well for me.

And about this start command: strangle FPS=30 %command%

The program can be set up by Github, and works with almost all Steam games! The small but useful tool is called libstrangle, with which you can limit the FPS as already explained. For example, I don't need 60 FPS to play ETS2, ETS2 is not a shooter. With that I was also able to solve some problems. Since ETS2 runs stable on 30 FPS, you rarely have critical FPS break-ins, and the PC doesn't have to work so much. I don't know if it helps, but trying it is about studying.

Greetings Linux_users.

[syscrh]

@Linux_Nutzer

Thanks and welcome to the forum!
But I don't think limiting the FPS will help with my problem, as I am not only getting occassional framedrops once in a while, I have constantly low framerates with 1.33. Furthermore there is nothing to limit, as I am nowhere near 30 fps.
I didn't have time yesterday to do another screenshot with 1.32 at the same spot in Palermo, so this has to wait until Thursday/Friday.

I don't know what has changed in 1.33 related to graphics rendering, but I do know that it doesn't improve my gameplay. Would be a sad end of the year, if 1.32 would be the last ATS/ETS version, that is playable for me ...